Malaysia-headquartered drone-based enterprise solutions provider Aerodyne Group announced that it has raised an additional undisclosed amount in its Series B funding round backed by North Summit Capital, Arc Ventures, and Leave a Nest, powering its entry into China, India and Japan.
This move is in line with Aerodyne’s aggressive global expansion strategy of investing heavily in data technology advancement, to propel the company’s vision to become the world’s leading drone-powered asset management solutions provider.
In China, Aerodyne has cemented a partnership with North Summit Capital to penetrate the market and extend Aerodyne’s technological edge. North Summit Capital is founded by Dr. Wanli Min, previously the Vice President and Chief Machine Intelligence Scientist of Alibaba Cloud and who also has had stints at IBM and Google.
North Summit Capital’s technology insights and capabilities will contribute towards the deepening of Aerodyne’s AI-enabled automation and machine learning capabilities into current solutions and offerings, cloud computing ecosystem, DT^2, as well as expedite research and development iterations and resolve service efficiency bottleneck, a key prerequisite for Aerodyne’s ambitious global market expansion plan.
In India, Aerodyne is partnering with Arc Ventures, which is co-founded by Arjun Aggarwal and Cibi K Chandran. Arc Ventures has a pan-India footprint and an extensive workforce. This is a welcome asset to Aerodyne’s growing requirements. India is a hugely diverse country and requires deep domain knowledge that Arc Ventures offers for optimum market penetration.
Aerodyne which already expanded to Japan and South Korea through its previous investors, is also strengthening their position in Japan through partnership with Leave a Nest, an entity that connects start-ups, research institutes and companies to create new businesses or explore new frontiers.
Aerodyne’s Founder and Group Chief Executive Officer, Kamarul A Muhamad elaborated,
“We welcome our new investors, North Summit Capital, Arc Ventures and Leave A Nest to the Aerodyne family. We firmly believe that together, we will be able to make the next technological leap, and be well positioned to capitalise on the growth of China, India and Japan, whose combined 2030 GDP forecast stands at USD117.7 trillion.”
Dr. Wanli Min commented,
“North Summit Capital is excited to co-lead Aerodyne’s Series B second round investment alongside other value-oriented strategic investors. We see great potential in Aerodyne’s large-scale data capture and analytics solutions to global critical infrastructure and related sectors. Hence, to supercharge its growth, we will help Aerodyne beef up its service efficiency by injecting DT (Data Technology) into product development.”
Arjun Aggarwal stated,
“Arc Ventures recognizes the impressive journey Aerodyne has witnessed since its conception. We welcome the common goal to establish the world’s leading drone solutions provider. India is set to be the second largest world economy. It is our endeavor to capitalize on both the tremendous domestic market and the many critical cost advantages that India offers.”
Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)’s CEO, Surina Shukri commended Aerodyne, a member of MDEC’s GAIN Programme, for being an exemplary homegrown tech firm that is capable of deploying state-of-the-art drone-based solutions across vast industrial sectors all over the world.
“This latest expansion into China and India is a momentous achievement for not only the organisation but the nation as a whole,” lauded Surina.”
Today, the Malaysian-headquartered, five-year-old Aerodyne is ranked third globally by Drone Industry Insights in its 2019 Drone Service Provider Ranking. Aerodyne currently has a presence in 25 countries and delivers AI-driven, drone-based enterprise-integrated managed solutions to the Oil & Gas, Power, Telecoms, Renewables, Construction, Agriculture and Infrastructure industries.
Besides global expansion via strategic key partnerships, select M&As and data technology advancement, proceeds from the said Series B investment round will also be used to hire talent globally and continue to expand into Aerodyne’s key global markets such as Japan, US, Latin America, Europe and Middle East.
Source: Press Release